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Truth-O-Meter rulings
The goal of the Truth-O-Meter is to reflect the relative accuracy of a statement.
The meter has six ratings, in decreasing level of truthfulness:
TRUE – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing.
MOSTLY TRUE – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.
HALF TRUE – The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context.
MOSTLY FALSE – The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
FALSE – The statement is not accurate.
PANTS ON FIRE – The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.
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How does PolitiFact Georgia’s Truth-O-Meter work?
Our goal is to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution fact-check statements by local, state and national political leaders, including lobbyists and interest groups. We then rate them on the AJC Truth-O-Meter.
To fact-check a claim, reporters first contact the speaker to verify the statement. Next, the research begins. Reporters consult a variety of sources, including industry and academic experts. This research can take hours or a few days or even longer, depending on the claim. Reporters then compile the research into story form and include a recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling.
The fact check then moves on to a panel of veteran editors who debate the statement and the reporter’s recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling. The panel votes on a final ruling; majority prevails.
Please box:
How does PolitiFact Georgia’s Truth-O-Meter work?
Our goal is to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution fact-check statements by local, state and national political leaders, including lobbyists and interest groups. We then rate them on the AJC Truth-O-Meter.
To fact-check a claim, reporters first contact the speaker to verify the statement. Next, the research begins. Reporters consult a variety of sources, including industry and academic experts. This research can take hours or a few days or even longer, depending on the claim. Reporters then compile the research into story form and include a recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling.
The fact check then moves on to a panel of veteran editors who debate the statement and the reporter’s recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling. The panel votes on a final ruling; majority prevails.
A veteran state lawmaker has taken on one of the world’s largest airlines.
And the scribes at PolitiFact Georgia were there last week to help sort it all out.
State Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, wants Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines to start paying millions in fuel taxes.
Delta officials said House Bill 175, as initially written, “violates federal law. “
PolitiFact also checked claims last week related to transportation funding and to advocacy for the nation’s veterans.
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below. Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.
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Johnny Isakson in an Associated Press article on February 2nd, 2015
“When you have 8,000 veterans a year committing suicide, then you have a serious problem.”
Georgia’s senior U.S. senator took control of the U.S. Senate Veteran Affairs Committee in January, and within a month, had bipartisan support for a bill aimed at improving mental health care for veterans.
Johnny Isakson noted the broad support for the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention For American Veterans Act in an Associated Press article just days before the bill cleared the Senate and headed to President Barack Obama’s desk.
“When you have 8,000 veterans a year committing suicide, then you have a serious problem,” Isakson said.
That statistic on veteran suicides – 8,000 a year or 22 a day — is from a 2013 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report, based on an examination of death certificates in 21 states.
The report acknowledges that about 5 percent of a sub-group of the sample were misidentified as veterans or non-veterans, when checked against VA records
The VA study shows a suicide rate that is 20 percent higher than the rate for the civilian population. A more most recent study is even more alarming, showing a 50 percent higher rate, with 29.5 deaths per 100,000 veterans.
That’s important context.
We rated Isakson’s statement Mostly True.
Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter on Monday, February 2nd, 2015
A bill to eliminate Delta Air Lines’ jet fuel tax breaks “violates federal law and puts the state at risk of losing critical funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.”
A handful of state lawmakers are pushing legislation to end lucrative tax exemptions on jet fuel that have added tens of millions of dollars to Delta Air Lines’ bottom line for nearly a decade.
On Feb. 2, Trebor Banstetter, a Delta spokesman, said House Bill 175, sponsored by state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, and others, “violates.federal law and puts the state at risk of losing critical aviation funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.” The bill would eliminate jet fuel exemptions for airlines with prior year tax liabilities of $15 million or less, to target hometown Delta.
Banstetter said he based his statement on federal laws stating that jet fuel taxes must be used for airports or aviation purposes and an FAA policy statement last November, clarifying the agency’s position and giving governments no more than three years to adjust.
Ehrhart says, if lawmakers approve, he wants to reinstate the fuel taxes, just on Delta, and send the proceeds to the general fund, as long as possible under that three-year window, before dedicating them to aviation purposes. Experts have different opinions on whether the FAA would approve that move, and the agency had no comment.
We rated Banstetter’s statement as True.
Associated Press report
Georgia’s share of money from the Federal Highway Trust Fund declined 12 percent between 2008 and 2013.
Georgia and other states are looking at ways to generate more money for transportation, and one reason for that is that the vast majority are receiving fewer dollars through the Federal Highway Trust Fund.
Last weekend, The Associated Press published a national analysis of trust fund spending between 2008 and 2013, the latest year for which figures were available. It showed overall trust fund money to the states was down 3.5 percent during that period, 12 percent to Georgia. We decided to fact-check the Georgia number.
Here’s what we found: Georgia received $8.14 billion in 2008 to 2013 — including (with rounding) $1.44 billion in 2008; $1.36 billion in 2009; $1.4 billion in 2010; $1.37 billion in 2011; $1.3 billion in 2012 and $1.27 billion in 2013.
By our calculations, that was a net loss of about 12 percent.
We rated the AP statement True.
Robert McDonald on Sunday, February 15th, 2015 in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press”
“Nine hundred people have been fired since I became secretary (of Veterans Affairs). We’ve got 60 people that we fired who have manipulated wait times.”
When Robert McDonald took over as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs in July 2014, the department was mired in a scandal over veterans’ health care, involving a whistle-blower’s claims that VA employees had manipulated wait-time data. The controversy led to the ouster of McDonald’s predecessor, Eric Shinseki.
“We have held accountable about 900 employees who are no longer with us that were with us before I became secretary,”McDonald said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Feb. 15..
Host Chuck Todd asked McDonald what he meant by “held accountable.”
“Nine hundred people have been fired since I became secretary,” he said. “We’ve got 60 people that we fired who have manipulated wait times.”
He also said that those 900 people “were with us before I became secretary.”
While the data shows that 900 people have been let go under McDonald, half those dismissals were probationary employees, meaning they were just starting work as the scandal had come to light, or weren’t even there when it was going on. Looking at historical trends, the number of terminations looks pretty similar to ordinary personnel churn.
More problematic is the claim that 60 people were fired in direct connection with the wait-time scandal. As of mid February, 14 employees had been ousted in one way or another due to the scandal, with another five directors or officers removed as well. Other employees were disciplined without being terminated. Still, the number of terminated employees is well below McDonald’s stated number.
We rated the statement False.
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